Meet five common house and garden spiders

Photographer Kim Louise loves invertebrates. Here she reveals her five favourite shots of spiders found in the home and around the garden – and hopes that they will inspire more love than hate for these beautiful arachnids.

7th February 2017

Nursery web spider (Pisaura mirabilis)

Nursery web spider Pisaura mirabilis

The image on the nettle leaf is of a little nursery web juvenile, very small stinging nettle leaf. I only got one shot off before it moved!

These spiders are around 12-15mm for females, up to 13mm for males as adults. The females carry their egg sacks beneath them and are amazing mothers. When the time comes, the mother will build a tent to shelter the egg sack. Once hatched the spiderlings have a protected environment while they are still so tiny. After their first moult they will then disperse. The mother will stay nearby, until they have all left the tent.

The spiders hunt on low vegetation. They sense movement and will overpower small flies and other insects with speed and strength.

Nursery web spider (Pisaura mirabilis) carrying egg sac

Nursery web spider (Pisaura mirabilis) with ladybird

Common garden spider (Araneus diadematus)

Common garden spider Araneus diadematus

This is a beautiful big female (10-13mm long body) and the most common of the orb weaver spiders. They build beautiful webs, fascinating to watch, especially when catching their prey. You can even see these catch wasps and overpower them.

Crab spider (Misumena vatia)

Crab spider Misumena vatia

This beautiful crab spider, isn’t always yellow. It can be white or greenish, and the red stripes you see here may be absent or spots.

You can see how big she is on this bluebell here. She is around 11mm, whereas the male is only 3-4mm.

I find them all over the garden, on flowers waiting for prey. A typical stance is with their first two pairs of legs open and waiting.

They are found across England and Wales and more common in the south.

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Crab spider (Misumena vatia)

Crab spider (Misumena vatia)

Money spider Erigone sp. (family Linyphiidae)

Money spiderErigone sp. (family Linyphiidae)

The family Linyphiidae is the largest family of Northern European spiders. There are well over 400 species in over 120 genera including some 300 in the UK. Adults ranging in size from less than 1mm to 5.5 but mostly only up to around 2mm.

Most of these little spiders make sheet type webs and you can often see the owner hung upside down beneath them. The webs are best seen across lawns and meadows on dewy morning. I think they’re wonderful little spiders and a real challenge to photograph.

I hope to capture some of these “ballooning“ at some point, which is how many of these tiny creatures get around. They will throw out some silk which is caught on the breeze and carries them to a new location. Sometimes they will disperse en masse – you may have seen many strands of silk in the air on a beautiful day.

The term money spiders is used for those within the Linyphiidae family which have no markings , usually with a grey or black body.

Money spider Erigone sp. (family Linyphiidae)

House spider (Eratigena atrica)

House spider Eratigena atrica

These are the biggest of the house spiders, which is their common name. They are up 10-18mm in body length. I think they are beautiful!

We come across these mostly in our homes, but I see more outside. A bird box in my garden has been full of babies and egg sacks all year round. Contrary to belief they will breed whenever , not just Autumn (as the female can store sperm to use whenever she wishes) We see more in Autumn as they are coming in from the chill. Males will wander the house and garden looking for females anytime .

You may find these in your baths and sinks. They are thirsty, if you want to, you can soak a cotton bud in water and they will have a drink from that. Then go on their merry way .

These siders make an often large sheet like web, with a retreat. Outside webs can be smaller. When prey is detected by the motion the spider will pop out to get their dinner.

You can tell she is a female, because of her palps. A male will have boxing glove-type palps, whereas as she has much smaller ones.

Photographer Kim Louise loves invertebrates. Here she reveals her five favourite shots of spiders found in the home and around the garden – and hopes that they will inspire more love than hate for these beautiful arachnids.